Ghost Words: A term invented by the lexicographer W.W. Skeat in 1886 to denote words that are not "real" words because they have come into existence in error.
–Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, Sixteenth Edition

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

"'Museum' was not a word that tests really well with the under-30 and 40-year-olds."

New Name and Mission for Museum of Television

By ELIZABETH JENSENNew York TimesJune 5, 2007First it was named the Museum of Broadcasting, and then, as cable and direct satellite grew, it became the Museum of Television and Radio. Now, in the Internet and cellphone era, that name seems out of date as well, so the museum is renaming itself again, this time as the Paley Center for Media, after the late CBS founder William S. Paley.

The new name, adopted at a March board meeting, is being announced today, effective immediately. It is part of an overhaul intended to make the museum, which was founded by Mr. Paley in 1975, more inviting and its holdings more accessible. Museum officials said they hoped the change would also expand the pool of possible benefactors at a time when the traditional support base is shrinking as radio and television companies merge.

By no longer calling itself a museum, the center, which has buildings on West 52nd Street in Manhattan and in Beverly Hills, Calif., is playing down its archive of TV and radio programs and is recasting itself as a place for industry leaders and the public to discuss the creation of those shows and the role of media in society. The number of panels and interview sessions is being doubled, and online media executives and creators will increasingly be part of those discussions.Patrons will still be able to watch or listen to old radio and TV programs, many unavailable elsewhere, and the center will continue to serve as a repository for old shows, although the collections policy will be more discriminating. The center is in the process of digitizing its holdings so they can be better preserved and accessed; currently 3,500 hours of the 145,000 hours of old tapes in the collection have been converted to digital form.

Pat Mitchell, the museum’s president and chief executive, said center officials envisioned offering new ways to view the old programs, perhaps at a wireless Intranet cafe at the center’s two locations, or over the Internet. The center recently struck deals with Yahoo and Comcast to offer clips from its collection on their TV Web sites. The center’s own site is also being enhanced.

Although the board agreed that the museum needed a new name, what to call it was the subject of heated debate. “ ‘Museum’ was not a word that tests really well with the under-30 and 40-year-olds,” especially in the context of radio and television, Ms. Mitchell said. Moreover, the name was somewhat misleading: some patrons would arrive expecting to see, say, Archie Bunker’s chair. In fact, until recently, museumgoers had nothing that they could see, unless they wanted to watch a specific old program. As part of the continuing changes, the West 52nd Street space now offers a rotating display, which now features Middle Eastern media, including a live feed of Al Jazeera’s English television channel.

Most board members liked the idea of renaming the museum as a “center,” but with more than 100 international media centers scattered about, the concept seemed too generic until Mr. Paley’s name was added, to make it “more memorable,” said Frank A. Bennack Jr., the former president and chief executive of Hearst Corporation and the center’s board chairman.

Though many younger visitors no longer know who Mr. Paley was — he died in 1990 — “when we asked people, they didn’t care,” said Ms. Mitchell, who added that “they liked the story” of Mr. Paley’s innovations in radio and television. “They don’t know who Getty is either, or Whitney or Guggenheim,” she said, mentioning people whose names grace some of the country’s most prominent art museums. “Just having a name attached to it gives it a personality.”

As someone who is a member of the Museum, as someone who has several of his works in the collection of the Museum, as someone who has spent many enriching hours at the Museum, as someone who likes the resonance and permanence of the word “Museum,” I take exception to this defacement, or as Ms. Mitchell would call it, “upgrade.”

What the hell, let’s go all the way and change the name to “Mindless Mall of Momentary Media.” Or, how about, “Funtertainment Hole.”

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About Me

Joseph Dougherty's plays have been produced at Manhattan Theatre Club and Lincoln Center Theater. His Emmy winning work in television includes the groundbreaking series "thirtysomething" and several movies for HBO. He is currently writing for the hit series "Pretty Little Liars" on ABC Family. His books, "Psychopomp," "Trunk Piece," "Handwritten Theatre," and "Comfort and Joi," are available at Amazon.com.